Archive for ‘Erotic Romance’

I love being an LGBT author – you meet the nicest people! I’ve been hanging out in Twitterland for about four months now connecting with other tweeps who think like I do: people who believe everyone deserves full civil rights and an equal chance at a happy ending (I’m a romance writer, remember?). Period.

Romance Writers of America (RWA) was established in 1981 “to advance the professional interests of career-focused romance writers through networking and advocacy.” I’ve been a member since 2000, when I attended my first National convention, and I still remember that heady feeling when I found myself in a room filled with over a thousand other persons who loved to do what I loved: read and write romance. It was a spectacular homecoming for me, a deep sense of being exactly where I belonged.

That feeling began to take a beating as the two halves of Adriana identified more specifically what we love to write: not only steamy erotic romance, but erotic love stories about women who are bisexual. I kept my RWA membership and joined the special interest chapter for erotic romance, Passionate Ink, but began to lose interest in attending conferences because I wasn’t sure where I fit.

Meanwhile a dedicated group of writers producing romance across the entire spectrum of LGBT was taking on the battle directly. At Romantic Times and RWA Cons they brought their books for display, participated in signings, and sometimes bore the brunt of prejudice and discrimination, even to the point of having their books removed and their displays taken down.

Those courageous writers persisted and RWA has just recognized a new special interest chapter: Rainbow Romance Writers , an on-line chapter with the following goals:

to promote excellence in gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender romances

to help members become published in LGBT romances

to be an advocate within the industry for our genre

to be a resource to our members and others on writing and the publishing industry

It may be a virtual room, and at this point there aren’t thousands of us, but both halves of Adriana are thrilled once again to be in a room where we so profoundly belong.

We just ran across a very interesting article on the wide range of desires and experiences that are included within the broad definition of bisexuality. Kathy Labriola, R.N., is a bi- and poly-friendly counselor in the SF Bay area whose writings on bisexuality and polyamory have been published on line by a friend of hers. In “What is bisexuality? Who is bisexual?” she describes thirteen specific types based on the work of J. R. Little. There are probably many more permutations and combinations out there, but we like this approach as a place to start.

Sometimes we write heroines who’ve been chiefly heterosexual but expand their horizons and discover that they’re also attracted to women. Some of these would fall under the “alternating bisexuals” designation in her typology – persons who have relationships serially, with one gender and then the other. Martha Richards of The Mistress of Purgatory Point most resembles this type. Others are more like “concurrent relationship bisexuals.” They have a primary relationship with a single gender, but at the same time have “casual or secondary relationships” with persons of the other gender. If things work out for Merry Delaney in The Merry Widow, that would be her hope.

Luci Parker, heroine of Writing Skin, is altogether different. She’s known she is bi for a long time. She’s not sure she could ever settle for a primary relationship with one or the other, and she’s pretty much given up trying. Loving both is part of who she is. Her first choice would be what Labriola calls “integrated bisexuals,” persons who have “more than one primary relationship at the same time, one with a man and one with a woman.”

The story of how she finds her partners – a man and a woman – is tender, funny, fraught with anxiety and uncertainty, soul-searching and heartwarming. You can find an excerpt here – enjoy!

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